Silkie questions for a newbie

[darajosami]

I am going to breed my chickens and I was wondering a few things.

1. I have just found out that the father of my new chickens may be a cross and possibly may not even be a Silkie at all (pic at bottom), can I breed whatever else is in them out of them? I know it sounds confusing

Hubby is a dairy farmer and he was telling me that with cows you can breed a cow that is Jersey x Freisan with a Jersey and keep doing that with each new calf and you will eventually get all Jersey, can you do that with chickens? Will that same rule apply if I do that with my new chickens I'm getting if I get a Silkie rooster? And if so how much would a Silkie rooster be?

2. Can you get deformed chicks from inbreeding? Will I then have to separate the new chicks when they old enough to lay (and perhaps new roosters) from there parents?

 

[Michael OShay]

If you breed your Silkie mixed rooster with pure Silkie hens, and then in turn selectively breed the most Silkie appearing offspring with more pure Silkies, you will after several generations of repeating this, get offspring, that are for all practical purposes, pure Silkies. If you do it this way, you won't have any problems with inbreeding, because it will require you to purchase more purebred Silkies along the way. However, it seems to be to be a round about way of getting purebreed Silkies. If you want to breed pure Silkies, why not just get a pure Silkie rooster (there are almost always extra roosters available around somewhere) and breed the pure Silkie rooster with your pure Silkie hens. You can donate your Silkie mixed rooster to a 4h club, or a petting zoo, or just give him as a pet to someone who isn't interested in breeding Silkies.

 

[Michael OShay]

P.S. Chickens can be safely inbred up to at least 4 or 5 generations.

 

[drumstick diva]

Theoretically after who knows how many generations you could end up with a pure silkie,
it would be so much easier to just start with pure silkies.

If you go to BYC buy,sell, trade forum there are usually several show/breeder quality silkie cockerels at very decent prices. It's really a buyers market for cockerels, roosters of any breed. Sometimes they are even free.

 

[darajosami]

If you breed your Silkie mixed rooster with pure Silkie hens, and then in turn selectively breed the most Silkie appearing offspring with more pure Silkies, you will after several generations of repeating this, get offspring, that are for all practical purposes, pure Silkies. If you do it this way, you won't have any problems with inbreeding, because it will require you to purchase more purebred Silkies along the way. However, it seems to be to be a round about way of getting purebreed Silkies. If you want to breed pure Silkies, why not just get a pure Silkie rooster (there are almost always extra roosters available around somewhere) and breed the pure Silkie rooster with your pure Silkie hens. You can donate your Silkie mixed rooster to a 4h club, or a petting zoo, or just give him as a pet to someone who isn't interested in breeding Silkies.

The rooster isnt mine so not a problem. A friend of mine is giving me SIlkie's and when I saw this pic of the father I wasnt sure if he was pure Silkie as he doesnt look like the other Silkie roosters she has (fathered by him).

 

[Michael OShay]

The rooster isnt mine so not a problem. A friend of mine is giving me SIlkie's and when I saw this pic of the father I wasnt sure if he was pure Silkie as he doesnt look like the other Silkie roosters she has (fathered by him).

You were right to think that he wasn't pure Silkie. His red comb and red wattles mark him as being a Silkie mix. Pure Silkies have dark, mulberry combs and wattles.

 

[darajosami]

If you want to breed pure Silkies, why not just get a pure Silkie rooster (there are almost always extra roosters available around somewhere) and breed the pure Silkie rooster with your pure Silkie hens. You can donate your Silkie mixed rooster to a 4h club, or a petting zoo, or just give him as a pet to someone who isn't interested in breeding Silkies.

That is something I will look into for sure. The main reason I am doing it this way as I have been offered these Silkies for free so I am going to use them as a test run (even though they wont be pure SIlkie's) and in the meantime will buy SIlkie' slowly but surely.

So there wont be a problem if I breed the rooster I am getting with what may (or may not) be his sister? She cant tell me who they all came from

 

[Michael OShay]

So there wont be a problem if I breed the rooster I am getting with what may (or may not) be his sister? She cant tell me who they all came from

No, there won't be a problem breeding him with his sister. You can safely inbreed chickens for at least 4 or 5 generations before you run into inbreeding problems.